With the increase in the number of organisations looking to embed coaching into their people and organisational agenda, the question many HR practitioners and executives are now asking is how to ensure that you get a return on investment for coaching.

I am therefore delighted to announce that our next masterclasses for the Association for Coaching in Ireland will be led by Dr Peter Hawkins, Founder of The Bath Consultancy Group and we will be addressing this issue directly.

The events will be taking place on the 1 April 2008 in Dublin and 2 April 2008 in Belfast.

Increasingly organisations that invest in coaching are becoming more discerning and eager to ensure that there is a demonstrable return on the investment being made.  In this master-class, Peter Hawkins will illustrate the key elements that need to be accounted for to ensure the best return on the investment of time and cost.

The key elements for the organisation include:

• Creating an effective coaching strategy
• Three way contracting between coach, coachee and their line manger, with built in reviews where the contracting needs to not only set goals for the coaching but link these to value creation for and through the organisation
• Harvesting the organisational learning from both internal and external coaching relationships while preserving confidentiality
• Targeting coaching on key talent at points of transition.

The key elements for the coach include:

• Developing an approach to coaching that balances the needs of the individual being coached, their organisation and the relationship between the two
• Being clear about the strategy of the organisation and how the individual being coached can increase the value they create
• Effective coaching supervision.

Each of the key elements will be illustrated with best practice from leading firms such as BBC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst and Young and Standard Chartered Bank.  There will also be practical tools and methods that both coaches and organisations can immediately apply to their own work.

Peter Hawkins is a leading consultant, writer and researcher in organisational strategy, learning, managing complex change, leadership and Board development.

He is the co-author of “Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational Consultancy: Supervision and Development” McGraw-Hill/Open University Press 2006 and the best selling “Supervision in the Helping Professions” Open University Press 1989, 2000 and 2006.

You can book your place to attend the Associaition for Coaching in Ireland Masterclass online - please do ahead of the event as numbers are limited. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Talking Coaching: resources and guidance for professional coaches, executives and HR and Talent Management leaders interested in the leading edge thinking in the world of professional coaching

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As a consultant, have you ever wondered how effective your business proposals are?

Are you missing out on great business opportunities because you are not crafting a winning proposal?

One of the workshops I am organising this autumn is “Writing Winning Business Proposals” for the Institute of Consultants and Advisors Group (a sub group of the IMCA). (Full disclosure - I am on the leadership committee for the ICAG).

In this interactive workshop where you’ll discover the secrets of writing high impact proposals so that you turn more tenders and proposals into profit for your practice.

Workshop Content:

In this highly participative workshop you will discover:

• The most common reasons business proposals fail
• How to respond to a request for proposal (RFP)
• Knowing how to decide when not to respond to a proposal
• How to craft a clear and compelling proposal structure
• How to prepare for your proposal presentation.

Speaker:

We are delighted that the speaker for this event is Geraldine Lavin, a founding director of 3rd i Ltd.

Venue:  

National College of Ireland, IFSC, Dublin

Time:

9.30 am – 1pm (Registration is from 9 am for a 9.30 am prompt start)

Investment:

This event is sponsored by the ICAG so is available at no-cost to ICAG members. The cost of this workshop to non Non-ICAG members is €50.
 
Booking arrangements: as numbers are restricted for this event please pre-register by Friday 14 September 2007 with Mick Rock mickrock(at)actnow.ie or contact him by phone at 087-7686069  to book your place.

I hope to see you there.

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So many times I speak to my clients or business colleagues and they are overwhelmed with actions and activities.

In today’s ever fast moving business world we seem to have an ever increasing workload – in fact can you remember the last time when you had everything marked off your to-do list?

One of the challenges in leading your own practice is the fact that many times your personal input is required before your colleagues and team members can move ahead and take action.

But is it really required? Or are you holding up the process because you want to be engaged and involved in everything?

MAKING TIME FOR CLIENTS

One of my clients who is a lawyer realised that the only reason he was holding onto his clients files was that he thought he wanted to be engaged in everything to do with the client.

We evaluated what he really needed to be involved and engaged with and as if by magic, the majority of client files were able to be passed to his team members. This meant that he freed up a significant amount of hours each week which he then could use to spend time face to face with clients, meeting key business contacts and coaching his team.

Our ability to effectively delegate key tasks can make a significant difference to our success – for example serving a client efficiently and effectively or losing a client to the competition.

Building, inspiring and retaining a high performing team is one of the eight key strategies we cover in the “Biz Growth Academy” where we teach our clients how to build their corporate, employer and personal brand so they realise the professional and personal success they desire and deserve.

One of the key ways to retain great talent is in fact to ensure that they feel valued and their contribution to the business is recognised. But for this to happen, as a business leader we need to be able to be effective in delegating key responsibilities.

You can still retain accountability for business performance and growth. However by being clear who is responsible for key activities means there is clarity about what has to be done when.

DELEGATE ACCOUNTABILITY IN MEETINGS

As an example, I was drafting some minutes from a meeting today and in the template we defined what the action was, who it would be undertaken by and when it had to be completed.

That same template will be circulated prior to the next meeting for all team members to update and use as a way to track that each team member is on track with what they were required to complete.

THE RASCI TOOL

A simple tool I often use in delegating activities is the RASCI. This tool enables you to identify the key responsibilities for each team member or key stakeholder.

You will also find this an excellent tool when managing projects or leading change programmes.

Taking each item or task you define who is Responsible, Accountable, who can Support you, who needs to be Consulted and who needs to be Informed of the actions being taken. The definitions are as follows:

• Responsible [R] – This is the person or group responsible for performing a task. Ensure that you only assign responsibility to those necessary.
• Accountable [A] – This is the person who is held accountable for the task being complete. Ideally only one person should be accountable for a task being performed.  
• Support [S] – These are people or a group of people who provide resources required for a task to be completed.
• Consulted [C] – These are the people you actively engage with prior to a task being completed as their input is highly valued and they are key stakeholders and can significantly impact on your success. Essentially, their input is sought and factored in prior to any action being completed.
• Informed [I] – These are the parties who are notified about a task after it has been performed. Their input is not critical to the successful completion of the task.

THIS WEEK’S ‘BIZ GROWTH’ ACTION STEPS

• Consider the actions in your inbox. Do you need to be the person who is responsible AND accountable for delivery of that task?
• Who else could you engage in moving the project or action forward?
• How could you use the RASCI process to ensure greater clarity and accountability of key activities in your business and in turn enhance your ability to deliver excellence in service to your clients?

NOTE: Every Monday on “Biz Growth News” I make available a full length branding and business development article.

If you enjoyed our weekly article, you may be interested in accessing more articles about branding and business development strategies to grow your practice. If so you can register to join our weekly newsletter and weekly no-cost workshops at Biz Growth Live.

TERMS OF REPRINT: You are welcome to publish this article in your own online ezine or news letter, providing the article is printed in its entirety and is left unedited and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:

©Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2007. All rights reserved. Reprinted from ‘Biz Growth News’ (http://www.bizgrowthnews.com/), a Oneocean Ltd publication for leaders in professional services practices, featuring inspiration, strategies and tips to build your brand, attract your ideal clients and enjoy greater success with less stress.  Subscribe today at http://www.bizgrowthlive.com/.

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In professional services a great way to build your brand is to develop relationships with journalists who write for newspapers and magazines that your ideal clients read.

Positioning yourself as a business leader who can provide great resources, has expert knowledge and can connect the journalist to information quickly and easily is critical.

If you nurture these relationships, you can be sure that the journalist will contact you again for future articles.

Here are 5 keys to support you in positioning yourself as an expert with the media: Continue reading

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If you are a member of a professional association and they have a website, it is likely that you are going to be able to post details of your business on their web site.

This is a wonderful opportunity, yet so many organisations to not maximise the opportunity. In other words they are not managing their brand online when they do not pay attention to their online profile.

Remember that if potential clients have visited the membership page of your professional association’s website, then it is likely they are searching for some one to be able to assist them with a problem or challenge they are experiencing.

Being a member of the professional association is going means that you are recognised and accredited by your association which overcomes the first hurdle when a client is looking for a professional services firm. You are considered to have a level of professional expertise.

However for them to click through to your website or pick up the phone to contact you, you need to present your distinctive expertise in a few sentances which is usually all that is available to you.

Here are 5 elements that you should incorporate into your online profile: Continue reading

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